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Sir: Davies (Psychiatric Bulletin, March 2001, 25, 89-91) suggests that further training is needed for psychiatric trainees in order to avoid being assaulted by patients and that further work is needed to distinguish the behaviour of those more experienced trainees who do not get assaulted. I heartily agree.

The police force cadets all get routine training in how to deal with violent and aggressive members of the public yet it is unusual to hear of this in psychiatric training. I suggest that yearly short sessions of ‘break-away’ and/or ‘self-defence’ techniques with experienced trainers are introduced in trainees' time-tables. From my own experience I have been lucky not to be assaulted, but I have had a few instances of patients trying to ‘throw punches’. Even though my psychiatric experience has, I hope, taught me to detect when someone is about to ‘boil over’, I have to say the instance when the attack almost hit home was when I could not have predicted the event. Patients who hit out are usually not trained in any of the fighting arts and I feel only a little training is needed to escape being hit.